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JUDGE WM. H. ROBERTSON— THE KATO- 
NAH POST-OFFICE— THE WILLETT SWIN- 
DLE—AND THE HARLEM BRIDGE. 

^.'^ •^^." . 

To THE Editor of the Eastern State Journal, 

W/nteplains, Wedchester County^ N. Y. 

Sir,— I have to thank you for your attention in sending me, 
at my request, a copy of your paper containing an editorial 
headed "Tlie Katonah Post-office — Mr. Jay triumphant," 
which I received this morning. 

I find in tliis article three statements Avhich I tliink render 
it proper I should reply to it, and as I cannot reply as briefly 
as I could wish, I fear I shall trespass on your cQ,urtesy if I 
ask the use of your columns for the purpose. 

The three points to which I refer arc these : 

First — Your reference to the post-office dispute as a per- 
sonal one between Judge Robertson and myself. 

Second— Xowx declaration that % abolitionism and radical- 
ism have at last prevailed in this controversy as they have in 
shaping the policy of the administration in the conduct of the 
war, and that Africa carries ofi' the palm." 

And, Thirdly— Yom announcement that " Judge Robertson 
is not disposed to give it up so, but will, at the proper time, re- 
commence operations with renewed vigor and determination." 

This announcement, I may remark, is confirmed by reports 
that Judge Robertson, and his cousin, the Hon. Hezekiah D. 
Robertson, of the Senate, are now engaged in bringing influ- 
ence from other parts of the State to assist them in again 
removing Mr. Benedict; and in view of their new "operations" 



nz^ 




to overpower, a second time, the wishes of the people of the 
Katonah district by political wire-pulling, threatening as they 
do not only the harmony and integrity of the Republican par- 
ty, but what is vastly more important, the foundation principle 
of our Republican institutions, it becomes proper that the x^eo- 
ple of Westchester, and the public generally, should be advised 
of the true character of the movement from the beginning to 
the end. 

The Katonah case, from the length of the contest, with its 
varying phases, its ramifications extending from Albany to 
Washington, with its side issues branching off into the Church, 
the Bar, the Board of Supervisoi-s, and the CoUectorship of 
Internal Revenue, has become a part of the political history of 
Westchester county, and its influence is not yet, perhaps, fully 
developed in determining the fate of politicians and the policy 
of parties. 

I shall endeavor the more carefully to state the facts with 
accuracy for the reason that the malignancy with which I have 
been treated may naturally be supposed to have impaired my 
impartiality. There liave been, I admit, a good many lies 
written about me in the matter, some of which I may, inci- 
dentally, correct ; and even if my object were to revenge 
personal griefs, instead of righting a great public wrong, I 
would have the same motive to avoid exaggeration, for I re- 
cognize as strictly applicable to this case the pointed epi- 
gram — 

Lie on, andjny revenge shall be 
To tell the very truth of tliee. 

Originally the contest for the post-oflice, between Mr. J. 
B. AVhitlock, Jr., and Mr. Moses S. Benedict, who are brotliers- 
in-law, was a fair and friendly one. Mr. Benedict was recom- 
mended for the post in April, 1861, by the Hon. Arnell F. 
Dickinson, Jared D. Powell, Walter S. Lyon, and others of 
our most respectable citizens ; and my preference for Mi-. 
Benedict was chiefly owing to the fact that, in his shop the 
post-oftiee would l>e disconnected from the sale of liquor. Judge 
Robertson asked nie (Aug. 31, 1861), as a favor to him, to sup- 
port Whitlock ; and I replied, " If Mr. Benedict consents, and 



8 

Mr. WJiitlock will give iip the sale of liquor, I will, with 
pleasure, assist to procure his aiDpointinent. My objection to 
iiim has been founded on this alone ; but it is an objection 
which he alone can remove. It is based on mj conviction of 
what the public interest requires, and it is, therefore, one which 
I cannot waive, even to do you a personal favor." 

On the 2rth Sept., 1861, Judge Robertson wrote to me— 
" My Dear Sir,— Benedict has been appointed postmaster. I 
could not prevent UP This was the first announcement to me 
of Benedict's success, and I wrote to him as follows : 

" I congratulate jou on your appointment as postmaster, 
and trust you will fulfill its duties with great exactness and with 
constant regard to the convenience of tlie public. I would like 
your post-office to be a model office in all particulars. ^ * 
I hope that you will not allow what has passed to interrupt, in 
any degree, the harmony that has existed between you and 
Messrs. Whitlock and Eobertson ; and I would like to know 
that good-will is restored on all hands." 

Mr. Benedict did proceed immediately to make his office a 
model office, and was himself recognized as a model post- 
master. 

Regarding Judge Robertson's note to me as a frank an- 
nouncement that the contest was ended, I gave myself no 
farther trouble about it until, on the 22d December, at Mr. 
Benedict's suggestion that there was some plotting against him, 
I wrote to the Department, and was informed, in reply, on the 
4th January, that before the receipt of my letter Mr. Bene- 
dict had been removed, at the wish " particularly of Judo-e 
Robertson." 

I immediately took measures for suspending the issuing of 
the commission, and on the 9th Jan., 1862, 1 addressed to Judge 
Robertson. the following letter : 

Sir, — Considerations connected with the friendly feelino-s 
entertained for you by my father, and those my family aiid 
myself have entertained for you, induce me to address to you 
this note. 

I am advised, by a letter from Mr. Kasson, the Assistant 
Postmaster-General, that yoa have succeeded in inducino: the 



Department to remove Mr. Benedict from the post-office at 
Katonali, and to appoint Mr. "Wliitlock in liis place. 

The contest l)ctween these candidates, before the removal of 
Mr, Gregory, was a long one. You did 3'our best to defeat Bene- 
dict, and I found no fault with your efforts, and I said as much 
in a letter I wrote at your request. » 

After Mr. Benedict was appointed tlie contest should have 
closed, or, if renewed, it should have been done openly. 

To procnre the removal of a public officer, who is faithfally 
performing his duty, from personal motives, and to procure his 
removal, from such motives, hy ex jyarie means, I think doubly 
wrong — a wrong to the officer who is displaced and whose 
cliaracter is subjected to suspicion, — a wrong to the Govern- 
ment whose dignity is impaired by its being under the instru- 
ment of private motives, — and a wrong to the country at large 
whom that Government represents. 

For these reasons I disapprove of the removal of Mr. Bene- 
dict, and I shall, if it becomes neccessary, use my best efforts 
to have him restored. 

I am aware, as you probably know, that Mr. Wliitlock did 
not care for the office, for he frankly told me so himself. I am 
aware also that your hostility to Mr. Benedict arises from his 
having voted against you in 1859, for I have it under your own 
hand, each line emphaticall}" underscored. 

As to Mr. Benedict's restoration to his office, of that I have 
not tlie slightest doubt. It involves a principle of justice and 
propriety that is of interest to the whole country, and which our 
Republican Government cannot ignore or trample on. 

The effort may involve more or less of labor and trouble, 
but the result is certain. How far such a contest will be of 
benefit to your judicial reputation, your personal character, and 
your future prospects, may be a question for your considera- 
tion. 

Before entering upon that contest, I think it proper to say 
that I shall enter upon it with reluctance, and on your account 
I am desirous, if possible, to avoid it. 

The immediate issuing of the commission is probably stopped ; 
but whether this be so, or not, if Mr. AVhitlock, who is guided 
by your advice, will at once decline the appointment, leaving 
Mr. Benedict undisturbed, it will save me, and perhaps your- 
self, from a good deal of trouble. 

Judge Robertson declined the pro]Dosition, and the contest 
recommenced ; and from that moment it assumed, on his part, 
the character of personal hostility to myself, to which you re- 
fer; and this hostility has been carried to an extent which, I 



believe, is regarded by Tiepublicans and Democrats, alike, as 
without precedent and without apology. 

So far as Mr. Benedict was concerned, the people of Kato- 
nah, of all shades of party, embraced his cause with an una- 
nimity rarely exhibited ; and their published memorials, 
proceedings, and resolutions were marked by a propriety, a 
moderation and a dignity that showed their clear understand- 
ing of the just limitations to political influence, and their convic- 
tion that they, as the clear majority of citizens interested in 
the post-office, were not asking a favor, but demanding a 
right. Their committees did the work entrusted to them with 
a fairness and exactness that left nothing to be desired ; as, for 
instance, Avhen 101 names attached to a petition for Mr. 
Whitlock, and to which I shall again refer, was submitted to 
Messrs. H. F. Wood and Mark Harris for an examination of 
the signers, they reported facts showing that 54 of the names 
M'ere entitled to no weight, embraciug persons out of the dis- 
trict or unknown in it, several boys under age, men unable to 
read or write, habitual drunkards, one Avho had been in jail, 
another from the House of Refuge, a third who liad committed 
an assault on Whitlock in his own store, and a fourth wliose 
name had been added without his knowledge or consent. 

At Washington an examination ©f the papers in the "Kato- 
nah case " disclosed to me the entire modus operandi adopted 
by Judge Robertson. Senator Harris and Mr. Haight had 
each filed letters written to them by the Messrs. Robertson and 
the members of the coalition — Republicans and Democrats — 
which had been organized to accomplisli the job. 

This inner view of the conspiracy — I know no better name 
for it — was not without interest, and I made many curious ex- 
tracts from tliat extraordinary correspondence, with which it is 
unnecessary now to encumber your columns, but which, as 
illustrating the character of the writers, are not without their 
value. 

I confess that I was slightly disappointed in not discovering 
more evidences of ability either in the scheme itself or in its 
general management. I found neither genius nor talent, unless 



under those heads are to be classed an unsurpassed facility in 
lying and an unlimited power of brag. 

The petition for Mr. Whitlock, recouiniending his appoint- 
ment — the same to wliich more than half the signatures were 
bogus — contained this paragraph : 

" We are aware that Mr. Moses S. Benedict desires this 
office, and that his leading supporter is unwilling that any 
preference should be expressed for any person other than Mr. 
Benedict without subjecting tlie person expressing such pref- 
erence to the most unjust, uncliaritable and unchristian denun- 
ciation. Believing, however, that we have the right to express 
such preference, and unintimidated by any threatened abuse, we 
boldly urge the appointment of Mr. Whitlock." 

To this was appended, among others, the name of " AV. H. 
Robertson." 

As my course had not afforded the faintest apology for such 
a charge, and as at a public meeting at Ivatonah, in reference 
to the post-office, a short time before, at which Judge Robert- 
son was present by our invitation, he had openly admitted that 
my treatment of him had been fair and courteous, I found it 
difficult to believe that this charge was intended to apply to me; 
but the fact became clear on reading the letters of the 
Messrs. Robertson and their friends, which all pointed to me as 
" the chief supporter of Mr. Benedict," whose character was to 
be destroyed in advance, as the first step to their success. 

Accordingly, on my return I called upon Judge Robertson 
to avow, at Katonah, in open da}", the charges that he had 
secretly insinuated to the Post-office Department, and I in- 
vitea him to meet me for the purpose at a public meeting, on 
the 27ih March, at Putney's Ilall. I referred in my letters to 
the extraordinary credit M'hich the Judge had claimed in the 
petition for speaking " boldly," and I hardly imagined tliat 
thus reminded he would be willing to admit by his silence 
that he shrank from meeting me face to face, and that he lacked 
the manliness to support in public the cliarges he had not 
hesitated to insinuate in secret. I said, "If I am the supporter 
of Mr. Benedict whom you, clothed as you are with the high 
dignity and solemn responsibilities of a judge, have thus ar- 
raigned and denounced to the Department at Washington, I 



deny the truth of the charge, and I propose to afford you ample 
opportunity to prove or justify it." 

The meeting was convened, but the Judge appeared neither 
in person, by letter, nor by counsel ; and his fellow-townsuien 
there assembled deliberately resolved, by an unanimous vote, 
that the charges contained in the Petition were " malevolent 
and false." 

Among the genuine names attaclied to the petition M-ere 
those of some of my most respectable neighbors, and, on in- 
quiring of several of these gentlemen on what authority they 
had brought such an accusation, I found that they had been 
led to believe they were lending their names simply to a re- 
commendation of Mr. Whitlock, and that they had been kept 
in ignorance of the contents of the document for whose libel- 
ous charges they were made apparently responsible. 

The following notes from one of the signers show the man- 
ner in which the bad faith exhibited by Judge Kobertson 
towards myself was extended to those whose unsuspicious 
friendship he was successfully invoking for his own candidate. 

[mK. KNOX TO MR. JAY.] 

IvATONAH, Jan. 25, 1862. 
Mr. Jay : Dear Sir,— I did not sign a petition like the one 
you sent me this morning. 

Respectfully, yours, 

John Knox. 



[mR. KNOX TO MK. JAY — ^D NOTE.] 

Katonah, Jan. 25, 1862— P. M. 
Mr. Jay : Dear Sir, — I beg leave to correct my statement 
of this morning in regard to that petition. I find, on incpiiry, 
that a petition of that kind was put at the head of a sheet that 
I signed. I did not see the petition, but did not suppose it 
read as it does, or had any charge in it against your honorable 

self. 

Respectfully, yours, 

John Knox. 

Thus tlie petition that appeared so formidable resolved it- 
self into this : that its charges were " malevolent and false ;" 
that more than half the signatures were " bogus ;" and that, of 



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the rest, a portion liad been procured by a method akin to 
forgery. 

I do not propose to examine at length the strange assertions 
that are bound up in the Katonah case, nor the wonderful 
laudations heaped upon Judge Robertson in the letters of his 
satellites, which however never exceed the estimate which the 
Judge puts upon himself, — as, for instance, when he Avrote to 
Senator Harris, Jan. 1, 1862: "For John Jay I have the 
greatest resj)ect, but politically— I do not say it boastingly — he 
has never done one-thousandth part for the Republican party 
that I have." 

But, omitting the abuse of myself, the disrespect towards 
my family, and in one case a wanton insult to my father's 
memory, that characterize the correspondence, I will quote some 
brief extracts illustrating a charge that, as your editorial shows, 
is still believed in the country, although it possesses not a sylla- 
ble of truth. Judge Robertson had written to Senator Harris 
that " all who receive letters at this post-office (Katonah) would 
acquiesce in AVhitlock's appointment, but for Mr. Jay." Upon 
this text one of the Judge's assistants — it is unnecessary at pres- 
ent to quote their names — enlarged as follows : 

" Perhaps it would be well to mention that the opposition 
to Whitlock proceeds from tlic abolition M'iug of the Repub- 
lican party." 

Another put it, if possible, in a stronger light, and said: 

"John Jay, the celebrated abolitionist, and his folloAvers, 
want Moses S. Benedict." 

After thus converting the entire force of Mr. Benedict's 
friends into my abolition followers and the abolition wing of the 
Republican party, it seems to have been thought expedient 
to make the matter doubly sure by inventing a motive for my 
supporting Mr. Benedict; and Mr. Benjamin I. Ambler, of 
Bedford, speaking with as much positiveness as though he 
were declaring a thing within liis own knowledge, crowned 
the pyramid with the assertion : 

" Mr. Jay desires to retain Benedict on account of his be- 
ing an abolitionist.'' 

Upon this accumulation of falsehoods was based an argu- 



raent that the conservative sentiment of Bedford would be 
turned against the administration if Mr. Benedict were retained 
in office. These immoral efforts of the coalition thus formed 
by Judge Robertson were successful, and the sincerity of their 
affected anxiety to strengthen the Government was curiously 
illustrated soon afterwards by their securing the election of Mr. 
Benjamin I. Ambler as the first Democratic supervisor elected 
in Bedford since the Republican party came into existence. 
The support he received from professed Republicans of the 
Robertson and Whitlock faction was the quid pro quo for his 
meddling with the affairs of the people of Katonah, and writing 
as he was bidden without the smallest regard to truth. Mr 
Ambler has since, as a member of the Board representing our 
ancient town, which should be the first to honor my father's 
memory, done an act, which he may live to regret, in voting 
with those who would have removed from its place in the court- 
house the portrait of Judge Jay. 

But to return to the declaration, repeated to the echo, and 
which, from the tone of your article,! suppose is still partially 
believed, that the friends of Benedict were " my abolition fol- 
lowers :" the fact was — and Judge Robertson knew it right 
well — that so soon as it was known that Mr. Benedict had been 
removed on his ex parte representations, the peojDle of the dis- 
trict, with extraordinary unanimity, protested against the re- 
moval and the manner in which it was accomplished, without 
reference to party ; and that, from the beginning to the end of 
the controversy touching the removal, it was a local question 
of public convenience, of public propriety, and of common in- 
terest, absolutely distinct from national politics. '•' 

Some of the most prominent and influential of the Democrats 
near Katonah, sucli men, if I mistake not, as Alex, S. Haight, 
Abram Bedell, Justice James Parent, Trueman Clark, David 
Putney, Daniel Tucker, Joshua Putney, Joel Miller, Mark Har- 
ris, and John Chadeayne, demanded that Mr. Benedict should be 
retained. And such substantial and conservative Republicans as 
the Hon. Arnsell F. Dickinson, Jared H. Powell, the ven el-able 
Walter S. Lyon, Oliver Green, James Hoyt, Benj. Mead, Dan- 
iel Smith, Dr. Shove, Jared H. Green, Alfred Wood, Harvey 



10 

"W. Smith, the venerable John Honeywell, 'J^.lfred Cox, Charles 
E. Wickware, Ezra "Wa^hbiirne, David Newman, Lewis Ferris, 
and a large number of others of similar respectability, heartily 
joined in that demand. 

When you style me " an original abolitionist," I readily ad- 
mit the name, if you mean that I have inherited from my 
father the anti-slavery sentiments originally taught by Wash- 
ington, Franklin and Jefferson, and so gloriously reduced to 
practice in this great State under the lead, some fifty years 
ago, of our own Tompkins. Nor do I object to your terming 
me " a radical Republican," although I have no fondness for 
the term, if you mean that I am earnest for preserving our 
territorial integrity and our national unity against all traitors 
either at the South or at the North, and for cutting up this 
infernal rebellion by the roots so thoroughly that it will never 
sprout again. 

But apart from my own views, whether they be rightly 
styled radical or conservative, I mean to say that, when I went 
to Washington with the Katonah protest, I went as the rejjre- 
sentative, not of abolitionists, nor of radicals, nor of any one 
class in our community, but as the representative of a large 
majority of those interested in the post-ofiice — farmers, mer- 
chants, and citizens generally, of every variety of political 
principle, and without a shadow of reference to part}^ lines. 

Your article intimates also tliat the two wines of tlie 
Republican partj^ in the State were ranged on opposing sides 
of the Katonah question. In this, also, I think that you are 
almost equally mistaken. At all events, among the men who 
upheld Mr. Benedict on the one ground that he was the choice 
of the i^eople, side by side witli George Opdyke and Hiram 
Barney, were Moses H. Grinnell, Richard M. Blatchford, and 
E. Delafield Smith, who united in denouncing Mr. Benedict's 
removal as "an act calculated, if not intended, to impair confi- 
dence in the administration." 

Some of the State Senators, who recently warmly supported 
Gov. Morgan for the Senate, wrote as follows : "• Whatever 
assurances may be given to the contrary, we are convinced 
that the removal of Mr. Benedict against the earnest remon- 



11 



strances of his district, and his replacement by a liquor dealer, 
to serve the purpose of local politicians, will find no sympathy 
with the people at large, nor with the friends and earnest sup- 
porters of the administration." The President himself, then 
lauded to the skies by Democratic journals as "our conserva- 
tive President," on examining with care a remonstrance from 
the women of Katonah, endorsed upon it his deliberate convic- 
tion that Benedict ought not to be removed. 

You will see, sir, from these facts, that you have unwit- 
tingly done injustice to the administration in supposing that 
the decision of the Department, on their recent review of the 
Katonah case, was guided by the motives you have assigned, 
or that Africa had any more to do with the result than Europe, 
Asia, or ISTew Holland. 

The Post-office Department, in removing Mr. Benedict, 
committed an error, which Mr. Haight has frankly admitted, 
and which is now repaired. The triumph which you attribute 
to me belongs to the citizens of Katonah, and it is not the 
triumph of any party, nor of any party wing. Democrats and 
Republicans, alike, may be proud of the firmness with which 
tlie people of that neighborhood have, quietly but firmly, 
maintained their ground against a political coalition more 
powerful and more unscruj)ulous than ever before attempted 
to intermeddle with the people of a rural district, to deprive it 
of the postmaster of their choice and the post-office of their 
selection. All honest men should unite to honor a community 
tliat, in bravely maintaining its own rights, has strengthened 
tlie principle of American institutions and vindicated the dig- 
nity of the American character. 

Your announcement that J udge Eobertson proposes to re- 
commence his operations, with renewed vigor and determina- 
tion, naturally recalls the character of the operations which, as 
accessory to the post-office, he has conducted personally against 
myself. His successful feat, accomplished by the aid of his 
confederates, of introducing his political quarrel into the 
Church of St. Matthew, controlling the vote of the congrega- 
tion, and excluding me from the vestry which he assisted to 



12 



elect, is already well known to the public; as is also his further 
success in securing my non-appointment as a delegate to the 
Diocesan Convention, although I was promptly returned to my 
accustomed seat in that council by the generous action of St. 
Philip's. 

Another procedure, hardly known beyond the limits of Ka- 
tonah, and of which I am not aware that Judge Robertson 
openly avows himself the author, was an attempt, through a 
town assessor, holding also the office of deputy sheriff, to raise 
the tax rate of the Jay Farm beyond the rate of the adjoining 
farms, and to a point some ten or fifteen thousand dollars higher 
than this very assessor had himself recently placed it, under oath. 
The conduct of this individual, after my ajjpeal to the board, 
was so utterly violative of every principle of justice and j^ro- 
priety, that I was not surprised to learn that it was warmly 
commended by Judge Robertson, and that to reward his at- 
tempt under color of law, to injure and insult me, the Judge 
had obtained for him the place of deputy collector, by threat- 
ening the collector of internal revenue, Mr. Abram Hyatt, 
with the loss of his office, unless the appointment should be 
made. 

The last ojteration, growing out of the Katonah post-office, 
which the public but too well understands, was the recent at- 
tempt, in the Board of Supervisors, to remove from the court- 
house and to return to me the portrait of my father. 

The spontaneous indignation of the people of the county 
at that audacious insult to the pure memory of Judge Jay, 
compelling, as it did, the mover of the resolution, Mr. Alsop H. 
Lockwood, to withdraw it, leaves me at liberty to dismiss the 
matter with no expression l)ut of gratitude to those who saved 
my father's memory from the perpetration of so gross an out- 
rage. 

AVhat the new and extensive operations arc to be that Judge 
Robertson proposes to institute, may be matter of speculation; 
but after the exhibition already given of the sort of political 
Avarfare invented and practiced by the county judge, the 
community will hardly be surprised at any schemes yet to be 



13 



developed, however strangely at variance they may be with 
the dignity and purity that once belonged to the ermine of 
Westchester. 

Whether new charges are to be forged against my character, 
or new frauds resorted to to give them a semblance of substan- 
tiality ; whether, again, it shall be thought expedient to invade 
a church, and to embroil a parish ; whether, once more, 
the point of attack shall be an Episcopal chancel at Easter, 
or a recent grave in the adjoining church-yard ; whether 
my pocket is to be slily attacked by a convenient tool in the 
shape of an assessor, or the feelings of my family wounded by 
another, in the form of a supervisor; whether the war is, 
for the future, to be waged on the living, or whether it shall be 
deemed safer and more congenial to continue it by insults to the 
dead, — all these are questions that, in view of the official char- 
acter of Mr. Robertson, as the elected judge and representative 
of the county, concern the public nearly as much as tliey con- 
cern myself. 

If, as it would seem, he has resolved to proportion his hate 
for the future by the memories of the past, and to multiply the 
insults he is to offer, until they equal the courtesies he has re- 
ceived, long years may elapse before the account, even in such 
coin and such installments, is fairly balanced, either with " all 
the Jays above ground," as he sneeringly designates the family 
to whose circle he was admitted when they supposed him to 
be a friend and mistook his character, or with the venerable 
jurist that sleeps in the church^^ard, under whose pictured 
gaze — " mirrour of antient truth'' — I am not surprised that he 
sits uncomfortably. 

Having taken the measure of this judge intellectually and 
morally, — having gauged his veracity and regard for justice, 
his self-respect, his sentiment of gratitude, his ideas of honor, 
and his sense of decency, — it is to me a matter of indilference, 
now that the insult to my father's memory has been so signally 
rebuked, what may be his next strange step in the Katonah 
game — whether a reflection on the principles of my grandfather, 
or, to vary the monotony of the programme, an assault on the 
character of my grandsons. 



14 



in the meanwhile there are two matters of far more pro- 
found interest to the people of Westchester than the vexed 
question of the Katonah post-office, since they affect the pock- 
ets of every tax-payer in the county. I refer, of course, to the 

WiLLETT SWINDLE and THE HaRLEM BRIDGE. 

Three years ago this very montli Mr. William A, Ilall, of 
Greenhurgh, discovered, during the negotiation of a loan on 
certain securities offered by the friends of Mr. Willett, that 
there was something wrong in the accounts of the county 
treasurer, and, regarding the county judge as the proper 
guardian of the rights and honor of the people of the county, 
he sought Judge Ilobertsou, advised him of the reasons of his 
conviction that the treasurer was a defaulter, and asked him 
who were the sureties of Mr. Willett, and if they were suffi- 
cient to protect the county from loss, suggesting that the defal- 
cation should be forthwith submitted to the Grand Jury and 
to the Board of Supervisors. The judge expressed no surprise 
at Mr. Hall's announcement, but promised to inquire into the 
matter. The extent of the defalcation when Mr. Hall made 
his appeal to Judge Robertson, is believed to have been less 
than fifty tliousand dollars. Mr. Willett is now, as it is said, 
an absconding defaulter to the amount of more than one 

HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, wllicll is SUppOSCd tO 

have been distributed among his political and personal friends, 
and which the people will probably be called to pay for the 
second time. 

As Judge Robertson's judicial duties leave him, as it would 
seem, abundant leisure for the prosecution of his private 
schemes, personal and political, the tax-payers of AYestchester 
may like to learn what steps he took after he was officially 
advised by Mr, Hall, either with the Grand Jury, the Board of 
Supervisors, or the suruties themselves, to avert the storm of 
dishonor and disaster that then threatened and that has since 
overtaken us ; and possibly he may be able to enlighten the 
public, on what has become a question of very general interest, 
who were the confederates of Mr. Willett, that concealed his 
guilt and shared the plunder. 

At the same time time the people of Westchester would 



15 

like to be informed by Jiidge Robertson, as one of tbe commis- 
sioners of the new Harlem bridge — Mr. Alsop H. Lock%yood, 
the mover of tlie portrait resolution, being the other — what 
steps he has taken in that capacity, to protect our citizens from 
being robbed by loose estimates, extravagant contracts, cor- 
rupt jobbery, dishonest favoritism, and endless commissions. 

There is a growing uneasiness in the public mind as to the 
extent to which our citizens, who will rarely see the bridge ex- 
cept from the windows of the Harlem cars, are to be victimized 
in this transaction ; and a deepening conviction that, if left to 
its present management, it will impose a debt upon the coun- 
ty to which the Willett swindle, large as it is, will prove but a 
flea-bite in comparison. 

However pleasant it may be for those who boast themselves 
the leaders of the county to parcel out among themselves the 
public jobs and offices — judicial, legislative, and executive — 
that, with ingenious management, may be made to pay ; and 
however pleasant they may have found it to see their bank 
balances steadily increasing, to the amazement of their simple- 
minded neighbors, who have no inner view of caucuses and 
are innocent of the mysteries of the lobby ; it is becoming clear 
that this game of grab has ceased to be amusing to the tax- 
payers of Westchester. Our citizens who live by their honest 
industry find their taxes, which are every year growing more 
burthensome, suddenly doubled by a wholesale swindle, in 
which the friends of the treasurer divide the spoils, and they, 
at the same time, are regaled by a vision of taxes for the Har- 
lem bridge extending far into the distant future, under the 
management of a joint commission that originally included 
William H. Robertson and Fernando Wood. How far the 
burthens already imposed on the county can be lightened, may 
be a question ; but, it is certain that, with ordinary vigilance 
on the part of tax-payers, the game of plunder may be made 
too dangerous for the rogues to play. 

Here, one would suppose, is a common ground on which, 
in reference to county offices. Democrats and Republicans may 
meet harmoniously, as did the people of Katonah in regard to 
their post-office. A common grievance, felt in the pockets of 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



16 014 109 251 

all alike, and felt more sensibly at this time, from the sacrifices 
demanded by our country, and cheerfully rendered by all loyal 
Americans, should lead our substantial citizens, without ref- 
erence to party lines, to unite in a common and stern resolve 
that, henceforth, Westchester politics sliall not be left in the 
hands of political sharpers bent only on advancing and enrich- 
ing themselves ; but that in all future nominations for offices 
of trust, regard shall be had to the public vrelfare, and a 
character for integrity be deemed, as of old, an indispensable 
essential. 

I am, sir, 
Respectfull}'^, your obedient servant, 

JOHN JAY. 
194 Fifth Avenue, 
New York, March 31, 1863. 



is^«SS 



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014 109 2510 



HoUinger 

pH 8.5 

Mill Run F3.1719 



